Enter the Gungeon is a “bullet hell” roguelike video game developed by Dodge Roll, which follows four adventurers as they descend into the ominous ‘Gungeon’ to locate a special kill that is able to kill the past.
Being slightly averse to roguelike games due to the necessity of having perfect coordination skills, I passed on the opportunity to review this game and gave it to Tom, an almost ‘God like’ indie gamer who somehow manages to just ‘get’ roguelike games. Here’s his review of Devolver Digital’s Enter the Gungeon.
One can never go wrong when combining two great things; peanut butter and jelly, brownies and ice cream, and now, roguelikes and handheld consoles.
For those of you who don’t know what roguelike games are, they are generally games where, when you die, you have to start the game ‘all over’ again. Alas, not all is doom and gloom. Generally, when you start your next play through you will have unlocked something that will make your new journey a bit more interesting. It could be a new weapon or character, or even a new boss!
Now that you’re slightly clued up on what roguelikes are it’s time to Enter the Gungeon!
(You should really listen to the main theme! This game has some awesome music!)
As Dhayana mentioned above, Enter The Gungeon is a bullet-hell roguelike developed by Dodge Roll and published by Devolver Digital (Hotline Miami, Titan Souls, Broforce) that originally released in 2016 and has now finally landed on the Nintendo Switch. There is nothing better than sitting on a long flight and being able to jam some awesome roguelikes to pass the time. Now how am I meant to decide between Enter the Gungeon and The Binding Of Isaac?
If you’ve played anything similar to The Binding of Isaac or Rogue Legacy you’ll feel right at home here. You pick one of three characters to enter the Gungeon and attempt to find the legendary gun that can shoot the past. Within the Gungeon you’ll find a whole heap of different guns to blast enemies away with, some with some, well… familiar names. Proton Backpack anyone?
In addition to the guns, there are over 100 different items you can pick up that will also assist you in your run. These will either do something when you activate them, or boost your stats/abilities passively. The Iron Coin, is currently my favourite item. It’s description reads “Valar Morgunis”. Yes, that’s a Game of Throne reference right there. This is one of the major highlights in the game, all of the pop culture references. This game has everything from Mega Man‘s blaster to The Box from Metal Gear Solid.
As I’ve said above, this is a roguelike, so no two runs will be the same. Each floor of the Gungeon will have a different layout, with different enemies spawning, different item drops and a random boss from that floor’s pool of boss characters (all gun themed of course.) It’s this feature that keeps you playing and telling your significant other “just one more run” (Note: said significant other may not be too happy with you saying that so please, use with caution)
Enter The Gungeon’s awesome pixel art style goes down a treat especially with the addictive soundtrack. Even the sound effects are great. Dhayana laughs every time she hears a the sound a particular bullet enemy makes as it gets killed (yes, even bullets are enemies).
Unfortunately throughout my play through of Enter The Gungeon on the Switch, I came across quite a few frame drops. This would generally happen as I’m entering a new room or if there are too many objects on the screen (bullets/enemies) and I have had the game crash on me once. Dodge Roll have said they are aware of this issue and are looking to have this patched in time for their free DLC – Gungeons and Draguns – which will include some new items, guns and a new boss!
So there’s Enter The Gungeon in a nutshell. If you’re a fan of the roguelike genre, I highly recommend picking up this title!